Seasoned wood and the OWB

[Scootermsp]

Last year I installed my CB5036 and cut wood like a maniac through the whole Summer in order to have enough wood and a buffer just in case it was colder than I thought. I finished cutting mostly Oak in early November. I thought I did fairly well burning about 12 full cords from Sept - April. I had about 4 cords of Oak and Hickory left over and managed to be finished with 10 more cords by May.
It is amazing how much MORE heat I get from LESS seasoned wood. I have 14 cords ready for Winter and now I am cutting for 2010-11 but with similar weather I have already used 2 LESS cords at this point than last year. I estimate using 30-40% less wood this year. Now I ask you, have you had a similar experience from one year to the next with seasoned vs. non-seasoned wood in your OWB or wood burning appliance?

 

[mimilkman1]

I agree with your findings I share the same experience, but the main consensus on this site will disagree. Get ready for it.

Kyle

 

[magnumhntr]

I've used about a half cord less wood this year as the same timeframe as last year. You definitly get better efficiency out of seasoned wood. I will be working on 2011-2012 in a few weeks now that deer season is about done for me.

Chris

 

[blackdogon57]

No doubt dry wood burns better and lasts longer. Should be end of thread - but somehow I doubt it.

 

[Laird]

I have to concur as well, although it is warmer this year than it was last year. The actual effect is harder to determine as a result. It is nice not to have my wood hiss at me when I open the OWB........

 

[Circle B MN]

I have to concur as well, although it is warmer this year than it was last year. The actual effect is harder to determine as a result. It is nice not to have my wood hiss at me when I open the OWB........

Nobody likes a smoke dragon. Burn seasoned, dry wood..

 

[flotek]

inner air/draft adjustment has gotta be altered for green versus dry wood .dry doesnt need a ton of air ...if its not adjusted correctly youll be pushing /sending your good heat right out your flu instead of heating the firebox and then left scratching your head why the premo seasoned stuff isnt working out any better than green junk wood .seasoned always makes more btus period.. it is always better over green

 

[bowtechmadman]

No clue haven't burnt any unseasoned wood.

 

[milkie62]

This thread makes me want to get next years wood cut NOW even though this years is just barely started.I am REALLY behind this year,and I burn roughly 9 cord.

 

[AIM]

Unfortunately I doubt I'll ever burned perfectly seasoned wood. Everything I cut is dead but as you know that doesn't mean it's seasoned. I cut all winter and when the heating season is over, the saws get put away. I just can't bring myself to cut during the summer so it has a bit of time to dry down. Cutting a year in advance is pretty much out of the question. Every year when I'm cutting in a foot of snow I "SWEAR" that I'm gonna cut next summer. Every spring I forget about this promise and put the saws away.

 

[J.W Younger]

The 1st year I have no way of knowing how much I burned because it went from the stump to the stove.We installed it in Oct. with no wood ready.
Took me about 3 years to get on top,but best I can figure12-14 green 7-8 dry.

 

[Scootermsp]

Unfortunately I doubt I'll ever burned perfectly seasoned wood. Everything I cut is dead but as you know that doesn't mean it's seasoned. I cut all winter and when the heating season is over, the saws get put away. I just can't bring myself to cut during the summer so it has a bit of time to dry down. Cutting a year in advance is pretty much out of the question. Every year when I'm cutting in a foot of snow I "SWEAR" that I'm gonna cut next summer. Every spring I forget about this promise and put the saws away.

I agree, I HAD to cut Summer 2008 if I wanted wood last Winter. My plan was to cut about 1.5 times what I would need by November and that worked out well. I then started cutting in March and was finished by May with about 150% of what I need. I plan to cut now until the weather closes in and with a little luck should have all my 2010-11 wood cut. I cut some on Friday at my Dad's house to help with some clearing and it was too warm. I moved another cord yesterday in short sleeves. Very attypical for mid-November around here. Summer is awful and should be avoided.

 

[r8ingbull]

It is amazing how much MORE heat I get from LESS seasoned wood. I have 14 cords ready for Winter and now I am cutting for 2010-11 but with similar weather I have already used 2 LESS cords at this point than last year. I estimate using 30-40% less wood this year.

This statement makes no sense to me.

So you are using less wood this year than last year, that means you are getting MORE heat from MORE seasoned wood.

 

[Scootermsp]

This statement makes no sense to me.

So you are using less wood this year than last year, that means you are getting MORE heat from MORE seasoned wood.

Correction: I am getting more BTUs from less wood...

 

[Jon E]

This year will be the first year I'll have a full winter's worth of wood under cover and completely dry. It's been sitting clean stacked in my woodshed since April. From limited burning the past two months, I think I'll be burning less wood than in the past.

Wet wood is not much better than green wood either. It still takes BTU's to heat off that surface water.

The best reason I can think of to burn seasoned wood is that it's easy to pull nice dry pieces out of the woodshed instead of having to shovel snow off a tarp and then fish around under it for the dry pieces. That, and minimizing the smoke coming out of the stack.

 

[howellhandmade]

Correction: I am getting more BTUs from less wood...

I'm puzzled, too. It sounded at first like you were burning your leftover 4 cords from last year. Are you burning freshly cut wood now and saving the seasoned leftovers? In any case, it's easy to mistake correlation for causation. If it seems like you are getting more BTUs from unseasoned wood, there must be another explanation. If green wood actually had more BTUs than dry wood all the water on the planet would have burned by now. Perhaps burning green gives longer burn (err, smolder) times. Perhaps the weather has actually been much milder than last year (certainly true here). Perhaps a combination of not really needing the BTUs has combined with your wood burning slowly to reduce your usage without noticing a lack of heat.

Jack

 

[dolmen]

For me and IMO wood needs to be seasoned, a minimum of one long hot summer and dry autumn. It should be kept dry and then burnt.

I fitted a new stove 1st week of nov and I can honestly say that the money will be saved over two seasons, its a Morso with tertiary air supply and its the first time I've had real heat, there is practically zero emissions from the chimney, my neighbour thought I hadn't started burning yet!

A woodshed that will hold enough for a whole season is a must, I store the following seasons wood under tarps ... its far from ideal.

Cheers